Wednesday, January 27, 2010

I purchased my laptop used on ebay, it had Windows XP installed and has the sticker on it showing that I actually have a valid copy of Windows XP. I didn't get an XP disk to go along with it however which I thought was unfortunate but I had a copy of the XP disk for another computer that we own. My thought being if I ever needed to re-install something maybe I could use that disk. So what does this have to do with a new word processor? Well the laptop also came with Microsoft Word installed on it. I didn't get that disk either, I really didn't know if I had a legit copy or not and didn't intend on using it because of course I would much rather use a free word processor instead. One day I decided to open Word to see if it worked. I got a message saying that I didn't have a genuine copy of the program. You could click on a link to learn more, I did that and Microsoft said it wanted to install some other software onto my computer. At this time I had had enough of this BS and went on the internet to get a fresh copy of Open Office. But before I downloaded it I paused for a moment and said to myself "What else is out there right now?"

After doing a search on Google I found the web site for Jarte. Jerte is a free word processor that is compatible with Microsoft word and can read and save file in Word, Rich Text, or text file format. Those word processor formats are really all you need anyway. But you can also save a file as a PDF or as a HTML file.

The first thing that struck me about Jarte was the interface, the interface looks very slick, but is very easy to use and is customizable in several different ways. You can switch back and forth between minimum, compact, and classic by clicking a button and getting different tools displayed, you can customizes each one of those to display any set of menus you wish. The true test of an interface for me is can I play with it for a few minutes and have it figured out. I don't want to read the instructions on how to use a word processor. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I could figure out Jarte. I was able to find all of the essential things that I use a word processor for very easily in a few minutes.

Here are some of the features that I really like:

Screen Capture: When clicking this button it shows my desktop then I can select an area to capture and click it. Going back to Jarte I simply past it into the document. Wow that makes it very easy to make documentation that references anything else you have on your computer.

Export to PDF. It is so nice just to be able to just do it without using a bunch of other bloated software to turn my file in to a PDF.

Finding features that I need: One of my main big gripes about programs like Word (other than the price) is that I can't easily find features that I need to use. I don't want to have to hit the help file to figure out how to center my text or with some of their newer version simply how to save my work. It's a huge waste of time if you have to do that. I'm going to use the tool that is easy to use. Jarte has some easy Menus and bars that show pictures of functions that don't really need much explanation.

Jarte comes with a dictionary in many different languages. My son is in a school where they use English as well as Spanish. This makes editing a lot easier for us.

Jarte also comes in a version that you can pay for. I don't see me doing that anytime soon because Jarte already does everything I need it to do. However if you want to purchase Jarte Plus it will only set you back $19. A bargain when you consider what Microsoft hits you up for Word, $229 at the Microshaft store.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

I did battle with the Internet Security 2010 Virus yesterday and I think I finally beat this malicious piece of programing. This Trojan poses as a malware removal tool but in fact infects your computer with malware. I was finally able to kill it by using SuperAntispyware with Windows booted up in safe mode. (It's always best to run removal software in safe mode, this way the virus has less places to hide when you run the removal program.) After removal I couldn't connect to the internet with Firefox. I could connect to the internet using a game that connects to game servers however my web browsers, Avast, and Malwarebytes,couldn't connect. Which means that the virus had turned something off. When I ran Internet Explorer it gave me an option to diagnose the problem. I didn't expect much but decided to give it a try. Well Internet Explorer came back and told me a setting needed to be changed and asked me if it wanted it to fix the problem. I told it yes and everything was fixed.

I have come to the conclusion that writers of spyware, malware, virus, and trojan horse programs should be put to death in a most painful way .......... or at least ban them from using a computer for 80 years. This would cause their brains to explode and take care of the painful death part. A Win Win situation!

This particular piece of software is really scary especially when it looks like it is a real program. It eventually gets to a place where it wants you to enter credit card information to steal your money. Here are pictures of what the InternetSecurity 2010 Virus will look like if it infests your computer.